This invention relates to a pipe hanger assembly useful in conjunction with adjacent pipe insulation, capable of accommodating conventional type hanger brackets, and accommodating tracer lines, preferably along the under surface of the pipe that is supported.
The use of thermal insulating jackets around outdoor pipes, as for chemical processing, is increasingly necessary and/or desirable. Frequently, a temperature controlling liquid in an adjacent tracer line is also employed. Typically, outdoor pipes are suspended by pipe hangers spaced at intervals along the pipe and extending around and beneath the pipe. The standard insulation jacket on such pipe is cylindrical in shape, being formed of a pair of semicylindrical halves having an inner passage large enough to accommodate the pipe and one or more underlying tracer lines which transmit heat up into the pipe. Processors basically will use only standardized, cylindrically configurated insulation jackets since such are more readily manufactured, less costly, widely adaptable to the job, and readily stocked, handled, and assembled.
When tracer lines are employed, a problem arises at the pipe hanger. The tracer line typically rises up to the top part of the pipe to avoid compressive load thereon between the pipe and hanger, and then back down to its most effective bottom position. To allow this position deviation of the tracer line, the insulation at the pipe hanger is large, bulky, and sometimes distorted, creating an undesirable condition, yet one which has been tolerated for lack of anything better.
Efforts have been made heretofore to market a hanger assembly that would accommodate the tracer line by employing a special annular or egg-shape housing configuration to fit the components. However, such product was a "bastard" product incompatible with standardized cylindrical pipe insulation, and therefore did not succeed. The cost was prohibitive, and application of the product was limited.